Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Kings 13:18 The old prophet answered, "I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD: 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.'" (But he was lying to him.)

Jeremiah 23:16 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.

Ezekiel 22:27 Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain.

Daniel 11:34 When they fall, they will receive a little help, and many who are not sincere will join them.

Matthew 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 24:11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Matthew 24:24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible.

Mark 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect--if that were possible.

Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

John 10:12 The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

Acts 13:6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus,

Acts 20:29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

Romans 16:17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

2 Timothy 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Revelation 16:13 Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

Revelation 19:20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

Revelation 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

I'm not a biblical scholar and it's been a long time since I was first taught to beware of false prophets and false prophecy, so I'll ask. Do these teachings apply and if so, would they apply specifically to people like Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the so-called Book of Mormon?

Good stuff on false prophets. I agree that the verses warning us to beware of false prophets apply to Joseph Smith and to others (such as Mohamhed) who claimed that everyone else is wrong and we must all follow their prophet who made all sorts of additions and/or changes to scripture.

beware of false prophets and false prophecy, so I’ll ask. Do these teachings apply and if so, would they apply specifically to people like Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the so-called Book of Mormon?
________________________________________

Do these teachings apply and if so, would they apply specifically to people like Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the so-called Book of Mormon?

YES! As well the JW, and I am sorry to say many so called Christian churches and ministers who preach not what God said, but what they know He meant to say, that put the word of man and traditions ahead to the teachings of Christ.

No I will not elaborate or list them. For it is easy enough for any and all to make their own concise and accurate list by simply judging every doctrine by what is written in the KJV Bible.

11
posted on 12/24/2011 1:16:04 PM PST
by JakeS
(This would be a good time to read John chapter three 1-21)

There are many fine Mormons, Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses and whatnot. I have no problem with them but I do with their theology/dogma. Truth resides in God. Truth resides in the Holy Spirit. Truth is written in The Holy Bible. And Truth can reside in us if we follow what light is given us.

16
posted on 12/24/2011 1:19:43 PM PST
by BipolarBob
(Of all the taglines in all the posts in all the world and she read mine.)

False prophets come in many shapes and sizes. The most dangerous of all are prophets (teachers) of Nihilism:

Nihilism: Why the West and America are Committing Suicide

For fifteen hundred years the Christian West, which includes America, had followed St. Augustine (AD 354-430) in affirming that as all men are the image-bearers of the transcendent Triune God the Father Almighty then it logically follows that every human being is a trinity of being, intellect, and will. And when God the Father entered into history to walk this earth as the man Jesus Christ it was then known beyond a doubt that God is the living, personal Father and not the impersonal, non-living androgynous energy-force running through nature as pagans believed, nor was He the distant unknowable God as the Pharisees and Sadduces and then later on the Muslims and the Wests Deists such as Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine held.

In the light of this reality St. Augustine went on to observe that at no time or in any place can it ever be wrong for men to love God with all ones heart, with all ones soul, and with all ones mind, nor to love ones neighbor as oneself. Furthermore, all men must unhesitatingly obey God, the Ruler of all creation, in everything He commands  and as He designed only two sexes, male and female, then what is today euphemistically called gay sex are crimes against the very nature of man designed and created by Almighty God. Thus crimes against nature must:

 everywhere be detested and punished. The crimes of the men of Sodom are of this kind, and if all nations in the world committed them they would all stand guilty of the same crime against the Law of God, which did not design men so that they should use each other in this way. (The Confessions of St. Augustine, p. 49)

The Western civilized world arose to heights of glory and individual liberty on the wings of the Bible and Christian theism in particular:

The Bible brought its view of God, the universe, and mankind into all the leading Western languages and thus into the intellectual process of Western man Since the invention of printing, the Bible has become the most available, familiar, and dependable source and arbiter of intellectual, moral and spiritual ideals in the West. (H. Grady Davis cited in The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization, Vishal Mangalwadi, Part 1)

But for for over two-hundred years, Western intellectuals and their eager followers have been sawing away at the Wests Biblical foundations, even going so far as to declare the death of the Triune God. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) realized that having killed the Biblical God, the West could not possibly save the civilizational fruits of its faith in God the Father for
the death of the Triune God means not only the death of the West, but the death of mans soul. In the words of George Orwell:

 we had sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake: The thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all; it was a cesspool full of barbed wire It appears that amputation of the soul isnt just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic. (Orwell, Notes on the Way, 1940)

Six centuries before Jesus Christ, the Buddha already knew that if God does not exist then the human self cannot logically exist either. Not wanting there to be a God, he took God away from the Hindu religion and deconstructed the idea of the soul, with devastating consequences. Mangalwadi, Indias foremost Christian intellectual notes that when one:

starts peeling the onion skin of ones psyche, he discovers that there is no solid core at the center of ones being. Your sense of self is an illusion. Reality is nonself (anatman). You dont exist. Liberation, the Buddha taught, is realizing the unreality of your existence. (p. 6)

For over two-hundred years the secularized West has been moving closer to Buddhas denial of the souls existence. Buddhism and Buddhas revamped version of Hinduism try to merge the soul into a universal, impersonal nothingnessthe void.

The anthropomorphized impersonal, non-living androgynous energy-force of Augustines day is now the universal nothingness variously known today as the christ-consciousness, the all that is everything, Chaos, the Force, universal soul, and the singularity for example.

The Marxist evolutionary-materialists who ruled the Soviet Union were actually very Buddhist in the sense that they tried to liquidate all expressions of God-endowed individuality in favor of an impersonal collective, communal consciousness.

Todays New Age post-modern Progressives go further. They seek to annihilate their sense of individuality through drugs, Tantric sex, yoga, and meditation. Like Buddha and contemporary Hindu gurus some of them are trying to merge their individual consciousness with the void.

Nihilism, or nonbelief in ones own self, is the logical assumption if God the Father does not exist. Nihilism is spiritual, philosophical and moral suicide. It is the emptiness that lands indivduals and entire societies on the Highway to Hell for why should anyone be concerned by anything, no matter how wicked and perverse if nothing is true, good, natural and beautiful in any absolute sense?

Mangalwadi observes that never mind and dont bother are logical virtues for nihilists who believe that there is nothing out there to give meaning and significance to anything herebe it your daughter, wife, or life. (p. 4)

Nihilism throws open the door to the wickedness committed by the Sanduskys. It puts out the welcome mat to murder-minded jihadists, Sharia-enforcers and floods of unassimilated immigrants. It asks, what is it to you if the Madoffs and nihilistic corporatists and politicians bilk thousands of Americans out of their jobs, homes, and life-savings or that Biden has redefined the Taliban as good guys? And why should you care if Americas youth are not only being homosexualized and diseased as a consequence but that the military openly embraces Satanism, Wicca, and gay sex? And when crowds of cheering families and toddlers dressed in sailor suits gathered to greet the home-crewing crew of the Oak Hill and the Navy made a show of two lesbians kissing, Nihilism said, dont bother, its nothing. (Womens First Kiss at Homecoming a First for Navy, Too,

Nihilism is the barbarianism of St. Augustines time revamped, modernized and disguised for example as evolutionary progress, free-thought, rationalism, materialism, scientism, tolerance, inclusion, safe-schools safe-sex, sustainability, choice, and open societies.

As they did in Augustines day, spiritually-dead Nihilists, or Subverters as they were called then, engage in a:

wanton kind of persecution of the modesty of ordinary unknown people, a persecution carried out for no reason at all except that by jeering and mocking they were able to give themselves a malicious amusement. Nothing can be more like the behavior of devils than this. (p. 42)

Having declared the death of God and the revealed truth that defines the moral value of every individual, nihilism is busily amputating the soul of the West. Thus the West is progressively discarding the source of its morality, rationality, humanity, and family: the spiritual, intellectual and philosophical foundation of personhood, human rights, justice, compassion, and education. The West is committing suicide on an individual and collective basis.

Your conscience is the part of you which embraces what is good and which rejects evil. It is like the doorkeeper of a house which is open to friends and closed to enemies. Hilary of Arles, Ancient Christian Devotional, p. 127

Individual suicide, or spiritual death results when the spirit of Nihilism forces open the door of the conscience, which it first compromises and then finally converts. It is the severely sullied conscience that enslaves the soul to the Devil, the father of nihilism.

Tomorrow in our church service the kids are singing Away in a Manger, and the choir is singing Once in David’s Royal City, With Wondering Awe, and Angels We Have Heard on High. With the traditional words, in case you were wondering.

I’m certainly not a Biblical student but I would agree with Smith, Young and others. Then you’ve got Jim Jones, David Koresh, Jeramiah Wright and Calypso Louie to name a few other recent ones. A con man is born every minute and many chose religion as their route to personal fame and wealth.

34
posted on 12/24/2011 1:35:56 PM PST
by JimSEA
(The future ain't what it used to be.)

I'm not a biblical scholar and it's been a long time since I was first taught to beware of false prophets and false prophecy, so I'll ask. Do these teachings apply and if so, would they apply specifically to people like Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the so-called Book of Mormon?

In my opinion, Joseph Smith made up a religion to help him cover for his lecherous, lustful behavior so he could have multiple wives.

I am certainly not saying to ignore the word of God. I am just pointing out that not everyone accepted the prophets of God or Christ Himself in their generation.

Which leaves us with the challenge of determining if contempary voice is from God or not. The Bible is a good measure, but that measuring stick was not available at the time of Noah (or Moses, for that matter). In the case of Christ, parts of it were available, but even then there was very few that followed Him. Most found reason not to follow, and even used the scripture available to them at that time to “prove” He wasn’t God.

Which makes this a bit more challenging then just accepting everything/anything or rejecting everything.

"For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve." -2 Cor 11:13-15

So here's the thing: Two different guys, centuries and continents apart, are living their lives minding their own businesses, when suddenly the "Angel Gabriel" appears to them and delcares among other things that:

The churches of Christ are corrupt and obsolete.

God's written word is incomplete. Therefore a third, "New" New Testement is necessary and here it is, grab a pencil. Also,

Poor response. You avoid the issue. The issue is, either the Book is true or it is false. If it is false, then people such as yourself have nothing to be concerned with. If the Book is true, then it speaks of eternal consequences for ignoring it’s truth. If you are willing to face those consequences, so be it. But you have been counseled by the Teachings of The Book. Do not blame others if in the eternal you are wrong.

45
posted on 12/24/2011 1:43:43 PM PST
by righttackle44
(I may not be much, but I raised a United States Marine)

You call God's Word a book? They are HIS WORDS!! What 'book' do you know that has the power like this.

"For the WORD of God is LIVING and ACTIVE. SHARPER than any two-edged sword, It PENETRATES even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it JUDGES the thoughts and attitudes of the heart". Heb 4:12

It LIVES in yourself.

NO IT DOESN'T. You have to read It, believe It and meditate on it for "IT/TRUTH" to get within you. The Great 'I AM' KNOWS what we need and how we attain it.

46
posted on 12/24/2011 1:43:53 PM PST
by presently no screen name
(If it's not in God's Word, don't pass it off as truth! That's satan's job.)

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